Mayor Chuck Reed isn’t the only San Jose politico who can press the flesh with the Obama-types in Washington, D.C. His political rival on the council, Nora Campos, just got back from a “very productive” trip of her own last week, her aides tell IA.

While Campos met with many in her push to keep San Jose high on the list of federal stimulus recipients, spokesman Rolando Bonilla said her most important sit-down was with Adolfo Carrion, special director of the White House Office on Urban Policy. Carrion reportedly kept his ears open when Campos mentioned how federal funding might help the city hire more cops.

The budding relationship with Carrion is worth watching: His office was designed as the Obama administration’s main clearinghouse for routing federal cash to big cities. And Campos and Carrion already know each other from their work with the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

Carrion also has been cozy in recent months with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was shown to the White House for a talk about health care and federal funding to help clean up Hunters Point.

IA just hopes Carrion will be around to deliver on those good vibes.

A citizen watchdog group has called for a bribery probe of our new urban policy czar — based on reports in the New York Daily News that as a Bronx borough president, he accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from developers, usually when he was considering their projects.

Meanwhile, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office is examining claims he didn’t pay an architect who did work on his home at the same time the architect was submitting a housing project for city approval.

Bonilla said Campos, for her part, wasn’t aware of Carrion’s issues. And her goal — touting San Jose — remains the same.

“For us, it’s not the man,” he said. “It’s the office.”

Is now the best time for state hiring?

Dale Moore, a loyal Mercury News reader with an uncommon interest in the state budget, posed an interesting question to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a letter last week.

Why, the 55-year-old human resources director asked, is the state advertising nearly 3,000 job openings on its Web site in the midst of a budget meltdown of epic proportions?

A reasonable query, given that Schwarzenegger has already sent hundreds of thousands of state workers home for two days a month without pay and plans to lay off 5,000 employees within weeks.

“I would like to understand why every time the state budget is in trouble, all we hear about is the need to cut teachers, firefighters and police officers,” Moore wrote the guv, attaching a printout of open jobs from the state’s site that ran well over 100 pages. “Couldn’t we live with a few less staff services managers, supervisors and compliance specialists during the down time?”

IA ran Moore’s letter by Lynelle Jolley, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Personnel Administration. She said some of the listings are for positions not paid for by the general operating fund (the one with the huge deficit). Others, she said, were posted even though department directors won’t be able to fill them, “to keep a stream of qualified applicants” in case things turn around.

That practice, Jolley conceded, sends the wrong message to the public and should stop. “I think your reader has a good point,” she said.

Kniss goes ‘Grinch’ on foster kids

A testy exchange rattled the mostly mild-mannered Santa Clara County supervisors last week, as board President Liz Kniss surprised onlookers with her persistent arguments against making the county’s 2,200 foster youth “a priority population.”

What, you say?

These would be children removed from their homes following allegations of abuse or neglect. A typically traumatized group, many bounce between foster homes and institutions and never see their families again. Mostly poor kids of color, juvenile court “dependents” are subject to the most invasive state action other than incarceration.

But Kniss opposed Supervisor Dave Cortese’s mostly symbolic resolution, guiding supervisors who oversee the child welfare agency that provides for kids in foster care. This phrase tripped her up: “Be it resolved that the Board of Supervisors recognizes the child welfare/court population as a priority population of the County of Santa Clara, and each agency must coordinate its services to meet the needs of this population.”

“If we approve this, would it mean that kids in the child welfare system would have priority above our seniors?” Kniss queried a mystified-looking board. “We have so many needy populations, are we moving this population to the top?”

Her four colleagues promptly voted in favor of Cortese’s resolution. But the opposition left Cortese clearly miffed.

“What is the alternative?” he quipped. “Should it say ‘Whereas the population is not a priority population but might be one?’ “

Kniss stated for the record that “not for a moment do I think kids are not a priority.” But she cautioned: “As we go through the budget in June, we’re going to hear about a lot of other needy populations.”

Internal Affairs is compiled by Mercury News staff. This week’s items were written by Denis C. Theriault, Karen de Sá and Mike Zapler. Send tips to internalaffairs@mercurynews.com, or call 408-271-3638.

More in News

SAN JOSE -- Grenades were discovered at an estate sale Monday, prompting the evacuation of about 10 homes near the San Jose Country Club, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. Deputies were called to the 300 block of Gordon Avenue, near Greenside Drive, about 4:10 p.m., said Sgt. Rich Glennon. Get breaking news with our free mobile app....